A poem about cicadas turns out to be politically sensitive, and the author was forced to apologize. According to internet users, the poem implicitly insults Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader. However, nothing in the poem openly suggests so, so what gives? I’ll break down how a poem about cicadas and the summer heat turns out…

HONG KONG—More commonly known for sparking debate on Twitter, Elon Musk was the centre of speculation on Weibo on Tuesday after the Tesla CEO posted a poem on the Chinese site that some took to be an extension of his clash with the U.N’s World Food Program. Musk and World Food Program (WFP) head David…

A Chinese billionaire rattled the stock market by quoting an ancient poem on social media, reflecting on the fall of the Qin Dynasty—the first empire in China. Although the post was later deleted, his company’s stock plunged to a new low of the year. “The Book Burning Pit,” read as “Fen Shu Keng” in Chinese,…